Chapter 2-He came for her

Chapter 2: 2-He came for her

"Someone help me."

Silence swallowed the whole ship. Not a single soul moved to help her or spoke up in her favour.

One woman lowered her gaze, several men turned away and another passenger tightened his grip around his wife’s hand. However, one stepped forward because they had seen what Dylan had done and they had chosen the stronger side.

The side with the ship, food, supplies and the side that might survive.

Aymara’s eyes burned. She saw monsters in the hearts of humanity she desperately saved in a means to let more people survive.

She looked at Dylan again. "Please, Dylan. Don’t do this to me."

For the umpteenth time, desperation entered her voice. "I’ll leave. I’ll take a small boat... I’ll go anywhere... just don’t do this."

Dylan walked toward her. "You’re making this difficult."

Aymara stumbled backward. ’Difficult for whom?’ she was tempted to ask.

"Dylan," her tone softened but even she could tell it was losing hope.

He reached her and she grabbed his sleeve, clinging to a chance at life. "Please, spare me."

He looked down at her hand and calmly removed it. He looked her dead in the eyes and said, "I’m sorry."

"No, you’re not," she spoke, finally accepting that his mind was made, all their minds were.

Dylan’s eyes remained cold. All the warmth that he had always wore for her was gone and no where to be seen.

Aymara realized something terrible; he wasn’t sorry, he had already decided she was dead and one less mouth to absorb the supplies on the ship.

Marko and Pete grabbed her arms. Aymara screamed. "LET GO!"

She kicked and struggled. "Dylan!" in her fight or flight mode, her mind still called out to him.

He didn’t move to stop them or save her. Aymara met his gaze, eyes wet, lips bleeding and her heart shattered beyond repair.

"Please!" she pleaded one last time.

There was no reaction in his face. If anything, he simply stood there waiting to see her die.

Sarah watched with a smile, she wore a smug expression on her face and couldn’t resist letting out a remark. "In your next life, don’t be stupid and blind, Aymara."

Aymara’s fingernails scraped against the polished floor as the crew dragged her toward the edge.

Her tears blurred everything. She looked at the passengers. "Please!"

Her cries went without an answer. They all looked at her, watched her downfall and didn’t say a word or lift a finger for her.

Then, Aymara was lifted up by the two strong crew members. Her body flew over the railing.

For one brief second, she hung suspended above the endless ocean, her eyes met Dylan’s and six years of memories flashed through her mind.

Their first date at the Lux hotel, their first kiss by the beach, the ring he had promised would one day be on her finger, the countless nights she had spent waiting for him, the times she had defended him, the friends she had lost for him.

And Nathaniel, she recalled Nathaniel standing in the rain six years ago. His face pale, his body already weakened by illness and yet he didn’t complain but still reached out his hand toward her.

"Don’t go, Aymara," he had pleaded with her.

She had ignored him and gone anyway, for Dylan... In the name of love and now Dylan was watching her fall.

SPLASH!

Aymara hit the ocean. Cold, that was the first thing she felt. After the cold feeling settled in, the pain came crashing down on her body.

The water swallowed her, she kicked desperately toward the surface, her dress became heavy and her lungs burned.

She broke through the waves and screamed. "DYLAN!"

The cruise ship continued moving without her, it didn’t stop.

"HELP ME!"

Her voice disappeared beneath the roar of the ocean. The ship became smaller and smaller, Aymara floated helplessly among the enormous waves.

A shadow passed beneath her and her blood froze. She turned, her heart pounding heavily as fear settled in her.

Two dark eyes surfaced beneath the water, she had survived long enough to recognize the monsters in the sea and could see that those eyes belong to a shark.

Then another set of eyes appeared. "No..."

She began swimming but the waves pushed her backward no matter how hard she pushed her body.

"Please... This isn’t how I die..." She refused to believe that she survived for that long only to fall to sharks after being abandoned by people she saved.

A fin cut through the water and dug deep into her ribs. "Aaaaargh!" Aymara screamed.

She tried to climb onto a floating piece of debris but before she could, something struck her leg.

"AAAAAAARGHH!" Another scream tore from her throat.

Pain exploded through her body, she screamed again and again. Blood spread into the water and it drew the sharks moved closer.

Aymara’s strength disappeared. She looked toward the horizon, the cruise ship was almost gone and nobody was coming for her, nobody cared whether she lived or died.

She began crying not because she was afraid to die but because she finally understood how foolish she had been.

She had spent her entire life being kind; giving, forgiving and trusting people easily and when the world ended, those virtues had become weaknesses her enemies used to exploit her and discard of get.

Aymara closed her eyes. "If I get another chance..." her voice was barely audible. "I will take your advice, I won’t be stupid or blind ever again."

A shark circled beneath her.

"I won’t love and ungrateful monster like Dylan," she swore, another wave crashed over her. "I won’t abandon Nathaniel."

Her tears mixed with the seawater. "I’ll find him... and apologize for dismissing his warnings," she choked on water.

She remembered his pale face, his trembling hands and the way he had always quietly waited for her.

"If I can go back..." her voice broke. "I’ll protect myself."

Aymara’s body sank lower. "I’ll build the strongest ship in the world..." her vision blurred. "No one will ever throw me away again."

Then she heard the sound of an engine, she struggled and kept her eyes open. For a moment she thought that Dylan had come back for her, but she saw that it a small boat and that thought crumbled.

Aymara forced her eyes open even more. She wanted to see who it was when the world had already abandoned her.

Through the rain, a tiny vessel appeared. Someone was standing at the front.

Aymara couldn’t see his face clearly but she knew that silhouette and it made her heart stopped.

"Nathaniel...?"

The small boat fought against the monstrous waves. It should have been impossible for him to be there, she had no idea he had survived the first waves and now that she thought about it, she never looked for him and yet the boat came closer wnd closer.

A pale hand reached toward her. "Aymara! Take my hand."

His voice, Aymara hadn’t heard that voice in six years. It was really him.

Nathaniel jumped into the water without hesitation, despite his frail body, despite the storm and despite the sharks. He came for her.

Aymara began sobbing. "Why?"

Nathaniel reached her. "Hold on to me," he instructed, holding her up.

"You shouldn’t have come," Aymara said, gritting her teeth and using her force to keep them up. He was too weak to support the two of them up.

"I know I shouldn’t have," he swam with her toward the boat.

Aymara turned serious, "You’re going to die."

Nathaniel’s arms tightened around her. "So are you."

He said it as though her dying justified him putting his life in danger. It was the same as saying he wouldn’t mind death if it was for her and with her.

Aymara stared at him. For the first time in six years, she looked directly into Nathaniel’s eyes and she finally understood a truth that she had been too foolish to see before.

He had never stopped loving her, not even after she abandoned him or after she chose someone else and even when she forgot him.

"Nathaniel..."

"Don’t talk," he dragged her toward the boat with all the strength he had, and she helped carry their weight. "You’re safe now."

Aymara clung to him when they made it to the boat without being eaten by the sharps circling beneath them.

She wanted to apologize, she wanted to tell him she was sorry and tell him she should have chosen him but before she could speak or enjoy the reunion...

BOOM!

A blinding flash erupted behind them, the small boat shook violently and Aymara’s eyes widened.

She looked toward the cruise ship, Dylan stood on its deck holding a grenade launcher, a tear flowed down her cheek. The tear mourned that Nathaniel was falling because he came for her.

A second later, another explosion ripped through the ocean.

BOOM!

The blast swallowed the small vessel and Nathaniel’s arms tightened around Aymara right before everything became fire.

Aymara felt herself falling. She couldn’t feel Nathaniel anymore, she couldn’t hear the waves and she couldn’t hear the explosions... only silence remained.

Her final thought was painfully clear. ’If there really is another life... I’ll never abandon Nathaniel again... this time, I’ll be the one protecting him.’

And then she fell into complete darkness.

---

[SYSTEM ACTIVATION DETECTED.]

[Extreme Survival Regret Detected.]

[Soul Compatibility: 100%.]

[Beginning Temporal Reversal.]

[Returning Host to seven days before the Apocalypse.]

Aymara’s dead heart suddenly beat again.

THUMP! THUMP!

Her eyes flew open.